Canvas Catalog is a special installation of Canvas used for non-credit courses at UBC. In addition to delivering online course content in Canvas Catalog, you can also include your course in a searchable catalog. Learners (from UBC or external to UBC) can use the catalog to sign up for courses in continuing education or for non-degree-related purposes.
Access | ||
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Cost | Free. | |
Bandwidth | Low demand on internet connections. | |
Canvas Integration | N/A | |
Privacy | Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process. | |
Similar UBC-Supported Tools | N | Canvas Catalog is the only centrally supported tool for running all aspects of your open and paid non-credit courses online. |
What can I use it for?
You can use Canvas Catalog for a variety of non-credit course purposes:
- Offering courses that are open to the public
- Running paid courses that use an integrated payment gateway to collect fees
- Creating custom course landing pages
This tool guide was last reviewed in April 2024.
What do I need to use Canvas Catalog?
A supported web browser
Canvas Catalog runs in your web browser and supports using Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari. For more information regarding compatible versions, please refer to the Canvas browser requirements page.
Administrative access to Canvas Catalog
Canvas Catalog administrators can create Canvas Catalog courses and create listings for these courses in a public catalog for learners to find. If you are not a Canvas Catalog administrator and your department does not have a designated Canvas Catalog administrator, please contact us at the LT Hub for help with the initial setup.
Tips
- There are two sides to Canvas Catalog that interact with each other to handle enrollments:
- The Catalog side displays available listings and can be accessed at courses.cpe.ubc.ca/dashboard.
- The Canvas side lets you build and run courses and can be accessed at ubccpe.instructure.com.
- You can enroll in Canvas 101, a self-paced course with a basic overview of features and functionality. This course can help you build your Canvas Catalog course.
How do I use Canvas Catalog?
You will first need to create and list your Canvas Catalog course. Then you can customize it by adding start/end dates, promotion codes, students, completion requirements, and proofs of completion.
Click any accordion bar below for instructions and tips for using Canvas Catalog.
Create a Canvas Catalog course
Only Canvas Catalog administrators can create Canvas Catalog courses. If you are a Canvas Catalog administrator, follow the steps below. If you are not a Canvas Catalog administrator and your department does not have a designated Canvas Catalog administrator, please contact us at the LT Hub for help with setup.
- Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog using your UBC CWL (Campus-Wide Login).
- Click Admin in the blue Global Navigation bar on the left-hand side to open your subaccounts. Choose the subaccount that you wish to create a course in.
- Click the +Course button to enter information for a new course:
- Course Name - The name of your course.
- Reference Code - Another reference name for your course. Feel free to repeat the course name or use a shorthand name.
- Subaccount - Your course’s desired subaccount.
- Term - There is only one term you can use in Canvas Catalog: "Default Term". However, you can add custom course dates in the settings of your course, if needed.
- Click Add Course to create your course.
- When you are ready to make the course available to learners, go to your course home page and click Publish in the right-hand sidebar under “Course Status”.
Tips
- Set any completion requirements for your course before you publish it. Steps for setting completion requirements and enabling proofs of completion are further down in this guide.
- You can search for newly created courses in your subaccounts. Click "Admin" in the Global Navigation bar and search for the name or reference code in your department’s search.
List a Canvas Catalog course
Once you create a Canvas Catalog course, you can list the course in the catalog. A course listing is the public-facing page that learners can access to register for your course. This listing can be customized with a custom course image and description to clarify its purpose.
Only Canvas Catalog administrators can create Canvas Catalog listings. If you are a Canvas Catalog administrator, follow the steps below. If you are not a Canvas Catalog administrator and your department does not have a designated Canvas Catalog administrator, please contact us at the LT Hub for help with setup.
- Log in to the Catalog side of Canvas Catalog using your UBC CWL.
- To enter the "Admin" dashboard of Catalog, click your name in the top right, then click Admin.
- Click Listings in the top menu bar, then click +Add Course to create a listing.
- Search for your Canvas Catalog course by either its course name or reference code. Once you have found your course, click the course name, then click Create Listing.
- The mandatory fields you will need to provide are as follows:
- Listing Title - The name of your listing.
- Teaser - A brief text summarizing the course. This teaser displays along with the listing on the catalog page.
- Full Description - This description is where you can put any information pertaining to the course, such as who the course is for and what it entails. Learners will see this section when they go to register for the course.
- You may wish to customize these settings to control enrollment in your course:
- Open for enrollment - Use this setting to either open or close enrollment manually.
- Days to complete - If you would like learners to have only a limited number of days to complete the course, set a number in this field.
- Visibility – Control whether the listing should be visible to users through the catalog or through a link, or not be visible at all.
- Click Save once you are finished.
- When you are ready, you can open registration by clicking Open For Enrollment in the "Admin" dashboard of Catalog.
Tips
- You can have multiple courses included under one listing. To do so, create a program instead of a single course listing.
- The listing image can use a variety of formats, including PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, and TIFF files. The files should ideally be 768 pixels high and 1050 pixels wide.
- If you would like to list courses with a registration fee, contact us at the LT Hub. Your department will need to be set up to accept payments before you can list courses with a registration fee.
- You can also make your catalog listings visible to the public and view them on your sub-catalog page. UBC examples include
- You can read a full explanation of Canvas Catalog listing options in the Canvas community guide. This guide goes more in depth on each of the settings.
Set custom dates for a Canvas Catalog course
By default, Canvas Catalog courses do not have set start and end dates. To set custom start and end dates, you will need to change this in your course settings.
- Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog, access your course, and click Settings in the Course Navigation.
- In the "Participation" section, click the drop-down and select Course.
- Enter the Start date and time that you wish to make your course available.
- Enter the End date and time that you wish to make your course unavailable.
- Scroll down and click Update Course Details to save your changes. Changes to your course start and end date will also be reflected on the catalog listing.
Tips
- You can assign different start and end dates for different students by creating multiple sections in your course. Each section can start and end when you like.
Add a promotion code for a Canvas Catalog course
If you would like to list courses with a registration fee, contact us at the LT Hub. Your department will need to be set up to accept payments before you can list courses with a registration fee.
Once you have listings with a registration fee, you can add a discount promotion code for learners to use.
- Log in to the Catalog side of Canvas Catalog using your UBC CWL.
- To enter the "Admin" dashboard of Catalog, click your name in the top right, then click Admin.
- Click Promotions in the top menu bar, then click +Promotion to create a new promotion code.
- Fill in the necessary details for your promotion code. We recommend restricting your promotion code as much as possible to prevent unintended users from using it.
- Catalog - Select a sub-catalog that this promotion code can be used for.
- Type of Promotion Code – Select to let the code be used either for any listing in the catalog or for just one specific listing.
- Name - Set what you would like to call the promotion code. Learners will not see this name.
- Type and Amount - Specify the amount that should be discounted from the registration fee, with an option to reduce by either a percentage or a flat dollar rate.
- Start and End Date - Add a start and/or end date, if you would like to restrict the code to a specific timeframe.
- Promotion Code - The code that is used by the learner to apply the promotion. You are welcome to use Generate Code to create a random code.
- Click Save Promotion to complete adding the promotion code. Changes will also be reflected on the catalog listing.
Manage teaching team enrollments in a Canvas Catalog course
These instructions can be followed to enroll Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Grader, Designer, and Observer roles in a Canvas Catalog course. Note that learners can enroll and unenroll themselves from any course in Canvas Catalog.
Add Users
- Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog, access your course, and click People in the Course Navigation.
- Click the +People button in the top right of the page.
- Fill in the email address of the person you would like to add.
- If the email address matches a person already using Canvas Catalog, that person will be added directly into your course.
- If you see the prompt "We were unable to find matches below," this means the user does not have an account in Canvas Catalog. In this case, you can invite them to create an account and join the course. Under the "Name" column, Click to add a name of the person to be added. After completing the rest of the steps below, they will receive an email invitation to create an account under the name you entered and join the course.
- Under "Role", select the role you would like the person to have.
- You can find a full explanation of each Canvas role’s permission settings in the Canvas roles guide.
- Click Next to proceed.
- You will see a pop-up window to confirm all the people to add. Click Add Users if everything looks good, or Start Over if you need to revise their email address or role.
Remove Users
- Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog, access your course, and click People in the Course Navigation.
- Locate the user you would like to remove by finding them in the roster or by searching their name.
- Click the three dots next to their name, then click Remove from Course.
- You will receive a prompt asking if you are sure. Click OK to confirm.
Set completion requirements for a Canvas Catalog course
Modules in Canvas allow you to organize course content and direct the flow of your course. If you wish to use completion requirements, you will need to add module requirements that determine when a module should be marked as "complete" for learners. These requirements should be set up before the course is published and learners are active in it.
- Log in to the Canvas side of Canvas Catalog, access your course, and click Modules in the Course Navigation.
- For any module, determine what kind of participation is required (e.g., completing a quiz, submitting an assignment, viewing a page) to consider the module complete. Ensure that these activities are supported by how you have built the module.
- To set the module requirements, click the three dots on the right side of the module's gray bar and select Edit.
- An edit form will appear, where you can build your completion requirements. When you are done, click Update Module.
Tips
- You can learn more about Canvas module requirements from the Canvas community guides. Adding at least one requirement to one module will allow you to add a proof of completion to a course.
- You can test the module requirements by using the Canvas student view. With the Canvas student view, you will view and interact with the course as a learner would.
- If you add a prerequisite to a module, that prerequisite must also have completion requirements. Canvas may not progress the student to the subsequent module if the prerequisite has no requirements set.
Enable a proof of completion for a Canvas Catalog course
Once your course has been listed in the catalog and you have added at least one completion requirement to the course, a proof of completion can be enabled. A learner will only receive a proof of completion once they have met all the completion requirements for the course. To learn more about setting up completion requirements, see the accordion bar above.
- Log in to the Catalog side of Canvas Catalog using your UBC CWL.
- To enter the "Admin" dashboard of Catalog, click your name in the top right, then click Admin.
- Click Listings in the top menu bar, and search for the name of the listing. Click the listing name to open it.
- Click the Certificate tab. Then click the toggle button for Include Certificate, and fill in the details for the proof of completion.
- Click Save to create the proof of completion. Learners will now receive a proof of completion when they meet all the course requirements.
Tips
- Proofs of completion for Canvas Catalog courses are optional. However, if you are creating a bundle of courses in a program, we recommend using proofs of completion in either all or none of your courses for consistency.
Canvas Catalog FAQ
Find UBC-specific answers to frequently asked questions by clicking any accordion bar below.
Regular Canvas | Canvas Catalog | |
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Uses UBC's Campus-Wide Login: People can log in with a UBC CWL. | ||
Uses Email Login: New accounts can be created with an email address. | ||
Offers Completion Certificates: A proof of completion can be granted when learners meet all course completion requirements. | ||
Links to SIS Course Enrollments: Uses UBC's student course enrollment system to grant learners access to courses. | ||
Offers Payment Gateway: Learners can pay for their course enrollment within the same portal. |
Learners can self-enroll in a Canvas Catalog course from the UBC Canvas Catalog listings or by following the email invitation link, if they are invited to join the course directly. After clicking “Enroll Now” (from the Catalog listing) or "Get Started" (from the email invitation), learners will be directed to either sign in with their UBC CWL or create a Canvas Catalog account (if they do not have a UBC CWL). If the course listing has a registration fee, they will be prompted to provide payment information to complete their registration.
To ensure accurate completion statistics, please direct learners (both with and without UBC CWLs) to enroll through the UBC Canvas Catalog listings or the direct link provided in their email invitation.
If any learners would like to drop a course, they should also unenroll from the course through the UBC Canvas Catalog dashboard. Note that learners will lose access to course materials after unenrolling, but the course may still appear in their historical records.
Other centrally supported learning tools are integrated with Canvas Catalog, meaning that they can work within or in coordination with your Canvas Catalog course. Using additional tools can give you more flexibility in the learning activities that you provide your learners. Contact us at the LT Hub for more information on the following integrations with Canvas Catalog.
Current status of integrations with Canvas
Canvas Catalog Integration | Integration Investigation | Results | Grade Sync | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
Badgr | Completed | Works in Canvas Catalog | N/A | This tool, where you can recognize and track a learner's course achievements, has been integrated into Canvas Catalog |
H5P | Completed | Works in Canvas Catalog | No grade syncing available | This integration allows you to create interactive content for students to learn from. H5P is an abbreviation for HTML5 Package and there are 45 interactive content types available, including multiple choice questions, video with an interactive quiz, memory games, image hotspots, and more. H5P content can be embedded in a Canvas Catalog page. |
Kaltura | Completed | Works in Canvas Catalog | Automated grade syncing available for video quizzes | This media platform, where you can create, store, and share multimedia content, has been integrated into Canvas Catalog. You can use Kaltura to record, upload, publish, search, and embed media directly in one or multiple Canvas Catalog courses. Kaltura also lets you edit media, create shorter clips from existing media, and add interactive quizzes to videos that can automatically pass grades to Canvas Catalog. |
SCORM | Completed | Works in coordination with Canvas Catalog | Automated grade syncing available | This integration allows you to import SCORM-compatible content from other learning tools and platforms, and use them as assignments or content pages in Canvas Catalog. SCORM is a set of technical standards that guide how learning tools should communicate and share data with each other. These standards allow content from other compatible tools to be exported as SCORM packages and then imported, launched, and tracked correctly in Canvas Catalog. An example of SCORM would be a video or presentation that includes interactive quizzes. |
Wiki Embed | Completed | Not available in Canvas Catalog | There is no integration between UBC Wiki and Canvas Catalog. However, you can use HTML iframe code to display a Wiki page on a Canvas Catalog page. | |
Zoom | Completed | Works in Canvas Catalog | N/A | This video/audio web-conferencing and collaboration tool has been integrated with Canvas Catalog. You can schedule Zoom sessions, as well as share these session links in Canvas Catalog. |
Please contact us at the LT Hub if you would like to issue a refund. We will ask you for the following information:
- Learner name
- Learner email
- Purchase date
- Amount to be refunded
- Order ID (which can be found in the Canvas Catalog analytics revenue)
Where can I get more support with Canvas Catalog?
Technical support
If you have trouble with Canvas Catalog:
- For courses on UBCO’s Canvas Catalog, contact Continuing and Professional Education support at cpe.ubco@ubc.ca.
- For all other courses, contact us for assistance:
604 827 4775 or LT.hub@ubc.ca or visit the LT Hub online.
If you have trouble with Canvas Catalog and Workday / Appointy:
- Contact Workplace Learning Support:
support.wpl@ubc.ca.
Learner support
- Share UBC’s Canvas Catalog learner guide with your course.
Learn more
- For more how-to instructions, explore the Canvas Catalog support documentation.